by Hope, Anne
She remembered heading to the subway station a few nights ago, searching for the boy. But after that, her memory grew fuzzy. “I didn’t find him.”
“He’s there. Even after the beating the place took. Saw him just last night. I told him about Reach, but he just blew me off.”
“And what makes you think I’ll have better luck?”
The line went silent for several beats. “Because you’ve got no history with him. He’s got no reason to be pigheaded with you. And because you’ve got this way about you. I can hear it in your voice. You always know the right thing to say.”
Angie was flattered, though she had a hard time accepting there was anything special about her. Half the time, she didn’t know if she was coming or going, now more than ever. “I’ll give it another shot. Tonight,” she promised. “If Ricky’s there, I’ll find him.”
Chapter Fourteen
The subway station at Lexington and 59th Street was closed for repairs, following some kind of freak accident. Squeezing past the signs warning passengers to stay out, Angie stepped onto the deserted platform.
Weak, artificial lighting flickered from the tubes overhead, casting a sickly yellow glow throughout the station and making the sight that greeted her all the more surreal. The place looked like it had been struck by a tornado. The platform was a mess. Wooden benches had been reduced to piles of splinters. Unsightly cracks marred the dirty gray-beige tiles. Several metal columns were bent at strange angles, while others had collapsed altogether.
She weaved her way through the debris, fighting an inexplicable onslaught of chills. The image of a flying subway car painted an ugly blur across the blank canvas of her memory. A runaway train could most definitely cause the kind of damage she was witnessing here, which meant there could be more to her flashbacks than she believed.
Buried in a pile of dust, half concealed beneath a handful of wooden fragments, a familiar piece of paper caught her eye. Angie fell on her haunches and yanked it out. As she’d suspected, it was one of her Reach brochures. She rubbed the crumpled paper between her fingers, remembered it slipping from her grasp as Adrian swept her off her feet, seconds before he jumped onto the roof of a passing train.
Insanity. The things she was recalling simply couldn’t be true. A person didn’t just hop onto a train that was hurtling forward at a speed of forty-five miles an hour. And said train didn’t just fly off the tracks to flatten everything in its path.
“What are you doing here?” Adrian’s voice cut through the clutter of her thoughts and jolted her back to reality. An irrational thread of excitement unraveled within her.
Crumpling the brochure and tossing it back where she’d found it, Angie stood and pivoted on her heels. Her shoulders stiffened at the unexpected sight of him even as everything inside her grew hot and molten. “Maybe I should be asking you that question.” She took a hesitant step toward him, then another. When she was close enough to touch him she gazed up at his impossibly beautiful face. “Who are you, Adrian? Really?”
His marble features gave nothing away. He gripped her by the arm and briskly directed her toward the stairwell. “You should go.”
A crazy sense of déjà vu swamped her.
“Hurry. Get as far away from this place as you can.”
“We’ve been here before,” she realized. “We stood in this very spot, and you ordered me to leave. But I came back.”
He made a valiant effort to keep his expression blank, but Angie saw the spidery cracks in his stone armor. “It isn’t safe for you here,” he told her. “The structure has been damaged. The ceiling could cave in at any minute.”
“I’m not leaving until I find the boy.”
“What boy?”
“A runaway. He’s living in the subway station. That’s why I came here the other night, to find him. But then, for some strange reason, I forgot all about him. You wouldn’t by any chance have any idea how that happened?”
A dark scowl, followed by a shrug. “Is there a reason I should?”
She pinned him with a dubious gaze. “You tell me.”
“If I help you find this kid,” he said, changing the subject, “will you promise to leave this place and never come back?”
“That depends.” Growing bold, she squeezed in closer. The air rippled between them as the gap separating their bodies narrowed. Heat spilled off him, warming her skin. The power he exuded was a tangible thing, dark and seductive, caressing her even as it threatened to draw her in so deep she’d never escape.
“On what?” His voice had the quality of burnt honey, sweet and thick and sultry.
“How persuasive you can be.”
A wicked glint came into his eyes. “Oh, I can be very persuasive.” He placed his finger beneath her chin and angled her face toward his.
He’s going to kiss me.
A pleasant thrill lurched through her veins. Her pulse tripped and crashed. She exhaled in short, eager puffs. His head fell forward with excruciating slowness, each small movement making her lips ache with painful anticipation.
His hot, soft mouth brushed hers, and a current of pure energy lanced through her. Her entire body came alive, her pores tingling, her heart ballooning in her chest until she couldn’t breathe. A drugging haze began to descend over her, urging her to surrender.
Angie jolted back, ending the kiss before it truly began, desperate to protect what little memories she had left. “That’s how you did it.” Anger and disbelief cooled the fire in her blood. “That’s how you wiped my mind clean. With a kiss. I remember now.”
Something flickered in his gaze. It looked oddly like guilt. “Listen to yourself, Angie. How could I possibly do that?”
He was trying to shake her confidence, to convince her she was bat-shit crazy. Well, it wouldn’t work. She knew the answer to the question he’d asked her was buried somewhere deep within her consciousness. She just had a little trouble accessing it at the moment.
Adrian suddenly looked behind him, pulling her protectively against his side. “Someone’s here.”
Footsteps echoed in the distance, and Angie tensed. Latent memories unfurled in her mind again—the thunderous boom of a gunshot, a creature with eyes the color of blue ice, an old theater…
A look of deep concentration claimed Adrian’s features. “Come on. I think I found your runaway.”
She followed him across the platform, past the escalators, to a bench that had been hidden from her view by the pile of debris. A tattered old blanket lay in a heap on the floor, next to several discarded wrappers and empty soda cans. A few feet ahead, a teenage boy was making a run for it.
“Stop,” Adrian ordered. To Angie’s surprise, the kid instantly complied.
She approached the runaway, who seemed riveted to the ground by some invisible force. He wore a torn pair of jeans, a faded black T-shirt and a gray fleece jacket that had seen better days. He had a short crop of black hair and his skin was the rich color of caramel. “Are you Ricky?”
He gave her a belligerent shrug. “Who wants to know?”
“My name’s Angie. Your brother, Max, told me I could find you here.”
Defiance flared in his dark brown gaze. “Max has a big mouth.”
“He’s worried about you. It isn’t safe for you to be sleeping here.”
The kid buried his thumbs in his back pockets, slouching. “It’s a hell of a lot safer than where I came from.”
“Come with me.” Compassion softened her voice. “I’ll bring you somewhere better. I promise.” She reached her hand out to him, waited for him to take it, but he didn’t.
“I ain’t going nowhere with you, lady. I like it here just fine. As for Max, tell him to mind his own fucking business.”
“Enough.” Adrian’s command pierced the silence like a bullet. “You’re going to drop the attitude and come with us, now.”
Ricky’s expression glazed over. “Sure. Whatever you say.” He hastened back to the bench, where he gathered his meager possessions
. “I’m ready.”
Angie gave Adrian a look ripe with shock and disbelief.
“Mission accomplished.” He flashed one of his trademark grins. “Can we get the hell out of here now?”
Chapter Fifteen
A couple of hours later, they stood across the street from Angie’s building, beneath a mantle of shivering trees. Slowly, dusk had slid into night, and the asphalt glowed with an iridescent gleam.
After they’d gotten the runaway settled at the halfway house, Adrian had insisted that Angie allow him to escort her back to her place. He couldn’t help but worry that one of his uncle’s foot soldiers had seen them and followed them. Angie may have been cloaked, but she wasn’t invisible. Enough black energy hovered around the station, courtesy of their showdown there a few nights ago. That energy could’ve potentially masked the presence of a Kleptopsych lurking in the tunnels or hunkering amidst the debris.
That was the reason he’d gone to the subway station today, to see if Kyros or his men had been scouring the place hoping to pick up Angie’s trail. Unfortunately, he couldn’t say for sure if the lingering energy he’d caught in the air was new or old.
Adrian cursed his stupidity. He never should’ve left Angie unprotected, even with the benefit of Cal’s cloak. He’d been afraid his continued presence in her life would lead Kyros straight to her, but he’d neglected to consider the possibility that Angie would go nose-diving into trouble. By stripping away her memories, he’d essentially robbed her of her defenses, and she’d unwittingly returned to the scene of the crime, exposing herself.
“You’ve got a gift.” She reached out and touched his arm, drawing him out of his dark thoughts. “I don’t know how you convinced that kid to come with us, but it was just plain mind-blowing.” The way she looked at him, with admiration and a glint of wonder, cut him off at the knees. He’d never been anyone’s hero before. It felt good. Too damn good.
“You have to come back to Reach.” She squeezed his biceps. “There’s no one else like you, Adrian. The kids there need you.”
He slid in closer, invading her personal space until her heat enveloped him like a pocket of sunlight. “How about you, Angie? Do you need me?” The words scratched his throat, rough and tender at the same time.
Her body stiffened as her guard went up. She inhaled a sharp breath and quickly withdrew her hand. “This isn’t about me. It’s about all the people you can save.”
Adrian didn’t understand her. She was open and selfless, with an optimism that bordered on naiveté. But there was a stain on her soul, a shadow crouching deep within her that both protected and isolated her. He wished he could read her the way he read others, but he couldn’t. Whenever he tried, he got a sense of who she was, a direct glimpse into her heart. Her thoughts, however, were closed off to him, and it frustrated the hell out of him. “What if the person I want to save is you?”
The pain that knifed across her face only added to his confusion. “I should be getting home.” She turned away from him, prepared to cross the street, but he grabbed her by the arm.
“You’re not afraid of knives or guns or a pile of rubble falling on your head. But you are afraid of something. I can see it in your eyes. Tell me what it is.” His words hung between them like a plea. “Tell me what it is and I’ll make sure it never harms you.” Never before had he felt such a fierce desperation to chase someone’s demons away. Never had he ached to comfort and shelter someone as he did at this moment.
She smiled a small, sad smile. “You can’t. But thank you. It’s nice to know I have a guardian angel out there.”
He bracketed her face with his hands. Her skin felt softer than the finest silk against his palms. “I’ll come back to Reach,” he said, knowing he was probably making a mistake, not giving a damn if he was. He couldn’t walk away from her again. Not after seeing the unspoken plea in her eyes. Angie needed him, whether she was ready to admit it or not. “But I want something in return.”
“What?”
He bent forward, everything inside him shaking with barely restrained need. “A kiss.” He had to taste her again, just once…
“My memories—” He sensed her internal battle, that tug-of-war between the desire to succumb to him and the mistrust he still elicited within her.
“I won’t take them from you. I give you my word.”
He felt her defenses weaken, her body slacken. Her lips parted, whether it was in protest or in anticipation he wasn’t sure, and he didn’t wait to find out. In the time it took her to blink, he bridged the distance between them and claimed her mouth.
This kiss was far sweeter than the last, with no hidden agenda, its only purpose to give and receive pleasure. He brushed his tongue across her lips, softly pried them open, hungry for the taste of her. He found her tongue, caressed and explored, savored every sinful delight her mouth offered.
She went boneless against him, and his arm greedily swept around her back to anchor her body to his. The feel of her against him, the soft fullness of her breasts digging into his chest, the heat that spilled from her flesh to inundate his system was the cruelest of tortures.
Everything inside him opened up to receive her. It took every ounce of self-control he possessed to keep from breathing her in. Maybe kissing her was more dangerous than he’d thought.
He groaned. She sighed and clung to him with an eagerness that matched the yearning flooding his veins. His hands traveled up her back, over the nape of her neck. He twined his fingers in the thick, seductive web of her hair.
“You are my one and only weakness,” he confessed against her lush mouth. “Every time I try to walk away, you draw me back to you.” He kissed her chin, her cheek, the graceful column of her throat. Still, it wasn’t enough. He wanted more.
“Stop.” She ripped herself from his arms. “Please.” Her breathing was short and ragged. “We can’t do this.”
He backed away even as fire continued to blaze beneath his flesh. Emotion and desire conspired to clog his throat and rob him of speech. Adrian was used to taking what he wanted when he wanted it, so this exercise in self-discipline tested him as he’d never been tested before. The Rogue in him rebelled, screamed for satisfaction. The Hybrid in him begged for patience and temperance. Thankfully, the Hybrid won.
“It’s not that I don’t want this,” she explained. “God knows I do. You’re a hard man to resist, Adrian.” She filled her lungs with air, gazed up at the heavens as though looking for guidance. “But believe me, I’m the last person you need.”
A caustic laugh blasted from his throat. “You couldn’t have gotten that more wrong,” he reassured her. “Everything I need to feel human lies within you.”
Her expression softened, and for a second he thought she was going to touch him again. But she didn’t. Fisting her hands, she buried them in her jacket pockets instead. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
She didn’t want to hurt him? The irony of the situation wasn’t lost on him. “I don’t break easily.”
The fight seeped out of her. Suddenly she seemed as small and as fragile as the grass he crushed beneath his wide boot. “But I do,” she whispered.
Did she sense what he was, feel the danger he posed to her? And if she did, could he really blame her for walking away?
“You’re right.” It killed him to admit it. “I wasn’t thinking. This thing between you and me, it can’t lead anywhere. We’re just fooling ourselves.”
Her face crumpled. Moonlight trembled in the breeze, bathing her in silver shadows. “I agree. But that doesn’t mean we can’t work together.”
He nodded. If that was the only way he could be close to her, then he’d take it. Now that he’d known her, he could never go back to living without her. The few days he’d spent apart from her had made him realize that, if nothing else. “See you at Reach tomorrow.”
She forced a smile. “Great. Tomorrow then.” Her gaze never wavered as she retreated. “Bright and early.”
The animal withi
n him wanted to stalk her, to seize her and carry her back to his lair, where he could keep her trapped forever, shackled to his side. The need to protect her, to brand and possess her, dueled with his desire to act civilized.
He knew she didn’t belong to him—not in the physical sense. But her soul did. And the damn thing refused to release him.
He stood in a pool of moon shadows and watched her walk away from him. With every step she took, the light inside him dimmed. Familiar loneliness crept over him, tempered only by the knowledge that he would see her again soon.
That knowledge was the only thing that kept the darkness from consuming him.
“I found her.”
Kyros gazed up from his desk at Darius, who stood in the arched doorway, his expression as focused as it was neutral. He gestured for the Kleptopsych to enter.
Darius hastened into the chamber, a crumpled sheaf of paper clasped in his thick fist. “I waited at the subway station as you instructed. Both she and the Rogue showed up. I followed them to a building on the Upper East Side. After seeing where she lives, it wasn’t difficult to fill in the blanks.”
Darius approached the wide stone table where Kyros sat and spread out the flyer he held, flattening out the wrinkles with his rough palm. “I found this in a pile of garbage at the station. She seemed very interested in it, so I decided to investigate this place called Reach. By cross-referencing the names of the volunteers with the names of those inhabiting the building on the Upper East Side, I was able to determine her name. It’s Angelica Paxton.”
Kyros examined the Reach brochure, only now remembering the item that had slipped from the girl’s grasp seconds before Adrian had whisked her away. Kyros had spent hours at the subway station attempting to pick up the woman’s distinct energy pattern. He should’ve been drawn to the flyer as surely as he should’ve been drawn to the girl herself, but he hadn’t, which meant only one thing. Someone had gone to great pains to cloak Angelica Paxton. He knew of only one creature who would be willing to perform the task—Cal, leader of the Watchers.